


In Vino, Veritas

by hyakinthos



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: M/M, new year's, nothing too scandalous just drinking and cussing, perhaps not the best decision leorio has ever made, set a few months after the yorkshin arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-28 18:31:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3865300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyakinthos/pseuds/hyakinthos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At best, the beginning of a hangover. At worst, the end of the world as Leorio knew it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Vino, Veritas

It was late on New Year’s Eve, and Leorio had honestly imagined that he would have been doing something drastically different with his time right now. He’d pictured himself in a bar, surrounded by people he only sort of knew, belting out Auld Lang Syne and being a bit overcome by the beauty of it all.

He’d have cut loose, gotten drunk enough to dance, tried a bit too hard to find a New Year’s kiss. It would have been great, which was why, according to the inexorable laws of the universe, everybody he knew had plans already.

So there he was, holed up in his apartment swilling cheap-ass wine out of a coffee cup and only half-paying attention to a couple of recent B-list chick flicks. He’d sing Auld Lang Syne all by himself, doggone it, and it’d be _damn spectacular!_ He’d called his mother and grabbed some blankets and that was that.

And then he got a mug of wine in him. And another, and a third. After that he lost track. Before Leorio knew it the last movie was almost over, it was well past midnight, and he’d been reduced to _smoking wreckage._ He was sleep-deprived and uninhibited, bawling like somebody had just kidnapped his grandmother.

Nobody had. It was just that the _protagonist_ was in love and the _male lead_ was in love and _he_ was in love. And his phone was _right there,_ and he had Kurapika on speed-dial and he didn’t quite recall how abysmally his _last_ drunk dial had turned out. He placed the call, praying that the phone would ring for once.

No dice. The recording played-- a default message read by a woman with a tinny voice. It annoyed him.

Leorio didn’t wait for the machine to beep. He’d record this message on his own damn terms, thank you very much!

“Y’never… never pick up your damn phone, huh? You forget ‘bout me? Doin’ all that important stuff out there? Huh? I’m here calling’ you every day, and you can’t pick up _one time?”_ he asked in a tone that would incline one to ask him whether he _knew_ who had pissed in his cornflakes. He downed another swig of wine for luck and pressed on.

“I call you every-- every damn day-- and I get nothin’ outta you. Worries me sick, I tell ya. ‘Ve got no clue if you’re even…” Leorio paused for a minute to collect himself-- it didn’t go so well. “‘f you’re even alive or what, out there. ‘F you’re doin’ okay,” He wiped at his eyes and sighed.

“Can’t stop thinkin’ ‘bout you,” he croaked, not quite realizing that he’d stumbled onto a particularly slippery slope. “‘M losin’ sleep, Kurapika,” he sobbed, although by this point it sounded more like he was addressing a ‘crap-kah’ than anything else.

“Thinking about you, how I want you to come home. I miss you, y’know, I wanna-- dammit-- I wanna see you, _fuck_ , Kurapika, I love you.”

And it was out, bawled into an answering machine at some ungodly hour as naturally as breathing. Everything that had been carefully wedged between the lines these past few months was delineated by a voice that one could _hear_ the alcohol on.

It was a bit of a delayed reaction when Leorio started to panic. The jig was up and he knew it, backpedaling and apologizing at a mile a minute. He managed to stammer an apology and a goodbye and a ‘Happy New Year,’ albeit with more profanity than was traditional. He took a swipe at his eyes and hung up the phone in the middle of a cussword.

He caught his breath, and his heart sank. _Honesty is the best policy,_ his bony ass-- this was at best the beginning of a hangover, at worst the end of the world. If anything, it was a low point. But then, there was nothing he could do about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I hope you all enjoyed this, it was a birthday gift for a friend. Any and all feedback is more than welcome!


End file.
